


Black Holes and Manipulation.

by peachykory



Category: Degrassi
Genre: Not a fic, sexual abuse tw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 13:16:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8057866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachykory/pseuds/peachykory
Summary: My thoughts on Yates and Tristan not getting the justice he deserves.





	Black Holes and Manipulation.

**Author's Note:**

> *Moved from my Wordpress with added things.  
> **Originally published: Jun 1, 2016

As we all know, Degrassi tackles many important topics. Relationships, cheating, drugs, sex, and even assault. Another thing Degrassi is good at is throwing things into the infamous black hole. One of those things in particular that has bothered me the most is the Yates thing.

Grant Yates was an English teacher that came in during season 13. Right off the bat he was odd and very off-putting, in my opinion. He shows that he's the type of teacher that wants to relate to his students and be the "cool" teacher by having them teach each other. He walks across the desk when introducing himself and has them rip out pages from their text books later on. He's young, a bit too charming, and an ephebophiile ( _an adult who is sexually attracted to adolescents_.) 

After telling the class about the new collective he's starting, Tristan wants in. We learn that things aren't so great at home and he wants a distraction. He later tells Grant of his parent's potential divorce and Grant tells him that he went through a similar thing at his age, then offers him a ride to his appointment without getting permission from the Milligan parents - or any adult in general. To me, this is where the manipulation starts. He sees how vulnerable he is and tries to relate to him. This here is just the beginning.

When Tristan isn't chosen for the collective, he gets upset by this. Grant comments that it was because his writing is poor. Tristan wants to prove himself and follows the group into the woods where they accept him after a poem he makes up on the spot. When the meeting is over, Grant pulls him to the side and tell him that he wanted Tristan to work for it and that he was testing him and didn't want to show favoritism. No teacher should be like this. They should give every student a fair chance and not make one in particular work harder than others for something just because they're trying not to show favoritism.

**More things that Grant had done to show manipulation towards Tristan are:**

  * Embarrassing him in front of his classmates after he reads his story idea, only to tell him he didn't want to show favoritism.
  * Tells Tristan about a book with a student/teacher love affair which leaves Tristan confused on the matter. Zoe also points out that it's not normal at all for a guy to suggest that type of book to someone he likes.
  * Invites him (a 15-year-old student) to his place because he needs to be there to pick up a package (they could have easily rescheduled) and told it to keep it a secret because he doesn't want the other students to get jealous. (Again with the jealousy thing)
  * He gives him absinthe to drink and Tristan is clearly intoxicated after. Remember, this is his **adult teacher**!
  * Tells Tristan he's immature which causes him to try harder to be mature for him causing Tristan to agree to sexual acts with him when he clearly wasn't ready. 



With all of this you would think that Degrassi would have some sort of outcome. Well, we were wrong. After Tristan was manipulated into having sex with Grant - Maya found out. This was the best thing to happen, but not in Tristan's mind. He was devastated that his best friends would do such a thing, whereas we were cheering her on. She did the right thing and Tristan was downplayed as the 'bad guy' because he ended their friendship over this.

Where I can understand that he was wrong about what he did to Maya - he was also in a very emotional state. He believed that this man loved and wanted to be with him. He wanted it to be real more than anything. Then he finds out that Winston was a victim of Grant as well and everything changes.

It wasn't until later on that we see Tristan realizing that he was wrong about all of that. He brings up Grant twice and we Tristan fans have hope for the future of this storyline being complete. Only it's not. We never hear another word about him after Don't Look Back. The entire story has been sent into the black hole.

Tristan is never going to get an actual ending to this story. It's over just like that. What are we supposed to believe happened? There was an investigation and everything! Where did that go? Clearly Mr. Simpson didn't believe Tristan was telling the truth or else Grant would have been back to teaching. There should be a trial about this. Even if it's off screen and we only hear about it when Tristan mentions it.

Why doesn't Degrassi finish this storyline about a male victim that was taken advantage of? Because they don't care about the male victims. How will this look to young kids watching the show? What about the young kids who this has happened to and they're afraid to speak out? These stories about characters getting just might actually help them see that they, too can get justice as well. But Degrassi isn't like that. They've shown that they don't care. 

It's never fair when your favorite character finally gets a chance at his own story (an important one at that), just to never have it finished. And the fact that they had the nerve to take back Tristan's virginity to have a plot about him and Miles' first time, makes me angry. It's basically a slap in the face. Now he truly will never get closure for it. 

There are so many young people out there that can relate to this or need to know that it can happen to everyone. Tristan was a victim, but isn't treated like one. If you hate him, love him, or just tolerate him; there's one thing I think we can all agree on: he deserves better.


End file.
